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Grand jury testimony: Ketamine, not police hold, caused Elijah McClain’s death

Medical experts testified that the 500-milligram dose of ketamine administered by an Aurora Fire Rescue paramedic caused McClain’s death

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Elijah McClain was diagnosed with excited delirium and injected with ketamine after being stopped by police. He suffered cardiac arrest on the way to a hospital and never woke up.

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Julia Cardi
The Gazette

AURORA, Colo. — Several medical experts testified to the grand jury investigating the death of Elijah McClain that he died of the 500-milligram dose of ketamine administered by an Aurora Fire Rescue paramedic, and the effects of the carotid hold a police officer subjected him to did not cause his death, according to a filing by the officer’s defense attorneys.

A motion filed March 18 in former Aurora officer Nathan Woodyard’s case requests that an Adams County judge dismiss the indictments against him for lack of probable cause to support charges of manslaugther and criminally negligent homicide.

Woodyard, two other police officers and two paramedics face 32 criminal charges connected to the 2019 death of 23-year-old McClain, a Black man. A grand jury indicted Woodyard, Randy Roedema, Jason Rosenblatt, Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec about nine months after convening.


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Read more

Legal analysis: What the paramedic criminal charges in the Elijah McClain case mean for EMS

Manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and other charges attempt to criminalize acts of medical malpractice and make deviation from EMS protocols a crime


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